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War crimes warning to Robert Mugabe as terror
grows

The TimesJune 20, 2008

James Bone, Francis Elliott and Jonathan ClaytonWith just a
week to go before Zimbabwe's run-off elections - and with the body count
growing - Robert Mugabe has been warned that he could be hauled before the
International Criminal Court in The Hague over the atrocities inflicted on
his opponents.

A key Western diplomat, speaking yesterday on condition of
anonymity, said: "He needs to know he is moments away from an ICC
indictment."

Twelve bodies of activists, most of them showing signs of
torture, were found across Zimbabwe yesterday.

In New York,
Condoleezza Rice, the US Secretary of State, convened a crisis meeting at
the United Nations. She said: "By its actions, the Mugabe regime has given
up any pretence that the June 27 elections will be allowed to proceed in a
free and fair manner. We have reached the point where stronger international
action is needed."

Also yesterday, Morgan Tsvangirai, the leader of the
opposition party Movement for Democratic Change, was denied a passport, and
his deputy, Tendai Biti, was charged with subversion and election rigging -
offences that carry the death penalty.African leaders began to desert
President Mugabe. A day after President Mbeki of South Africa failed to make
any headway in face-to-face talks with President Mugabe, neighbouring states
delivered their strongest condemnation yet.

Bernard Membe, the
Tanzanian Foreign Minister, said: "There is every sign that these elections
will never be free nor fair." He said that he and the foreign ministers of
Swaziland and Angola - the peace and security troika from the Southern
African Development Community (SADC) - would write to their presidents to
"do something urgently" to save Zimbabwe.

A senior SADC diplomatic source
said: "The last allies he has in the world - SADC - are now saying they have
had enough and this disgrace cannot go on. His obduracy has united them
against him. They are trying to make him realise that a poll victory is no
victory."

South Africa, which has advocated "quiet diplomacy", snubbed Dr
Rice's efforts. Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma, the Foreign Minister, skipped the UN
meeting on Zimbabwe but attended a separate meeting with Dr Rice on sexual
violence. They met briefly. Dr Rice said that she and Ms Zuma wanted the
same thing for Zimbabwe.

Any attempt to bring Mr Mugabe before the
court in The Hague faces formidable obstacles. The ICC has charged 11
Africans - two from Sudan, four from Uganda, one from the Central African
Republic and four from the Democratic Republic of the Congo - but it does
not have jurisdiction over Zimbabwe. It would have to be referred to the
court by the 15-nation UN Security Council.

The Security Council is
so split that the US, holding the presidency this month, is having trouble
even holding a briefing on the violence. US diplomats may have to force a
procedural vote to get Zimbabwe on to the agenda because of resistance from
council members such as South Africa, Russia, China, Vietnam, Indonesia and
Libya.

The US does not itself recognise the ICC, although it allowed the
council to refer the Darfur crisis to the court. An official told The Times
that the Bush Administration would be reluctant to accept another
"carve-out" to the ICC by referring Zimbabwe.

The Zimbabwean
authorities are outraged by any suggestion that Mr Mugabe might face an
international court. Florence Ziyambi, the prosecutor, cited the threat of
international prosecution as one of the grounds for charging Mr Biti. "They
are alleging that the President is a criminal since they want to take him to
The Hague," she told the court.

Kadoma MDC Youths in Dramatic Rescue of Tortured Colleague

Kadoma faces violent retribution Thursday evening after MDC
youths successfully launched a daring rescue of their colleague who was
being tortured in the local Zanu PF office.

Early on Thursday morning
five Zanu PF militants abducted David Samapenda, the chief election agent of
the winning MDC MP, and locked him inside their torture base come office,
located just 50 meters away from a police station. MDC youths, commuter bus
conductors and others who witnessed Samapenda being dragged into the
building immediately mobilized themselves and marched on the building to
rescue him. The youths managed to get him out of the office but not before
windows and other property was destroyed in the skirmishes. Samapenda, who
had passed out from the beatings and torture, was rushed to hospital
immediately.

The MDC MP for Kadoma Central, Editor Matamisa, told
Newsreel the town was on the verge of absolute chaos after Zanu PF
commandeered two 'UD' trucks and used them to pick up mobs from the nearby
Patchway Mine. Matamisa, speaking from Kadoma Central Police station where
she had gone to file a report, said a night of violence awaited residents
Thursday. Earlier on Wednesday an elderly MDC supporter, William Tembo, was
abducted by Zanu PF youths who saw him travelling to an MDC rally wearing a
party t-shirt. He was taken to an area called Gweshe in Mhondoro, beaten up
and left for dead. He has since made his way back to Kadoma and was admitted
to hospital.

On Monday residents in the gold mining town locked
themselves in their homes as marauding gangs of Zanu PF youths forced
everyone to attend Mugabe's rally in the town. Newsreel spoke to frightened
residents who said the youths wielded sticks and sjamboks and beat up anyone
on the street who was not going to Mugabe's rally. Others already on the
streets and far from their homes fled to surrounding farms. Hammering home
the irony of the situation was the fact that Mugabe used the same rally to
threaten the opposition.

'Mugabe using violence to hijack
vote'

Zim Online

by Cuthbert Nzou Friday 20 June
2008

HARARE - A leading international human rights group on
Thursday accused President Robert Mugabe of trying to "hijack" Zimbabwe's
presidential run-off election next week through a relentless campaign of
violence and arrests against opposition and civic society
leaders.

The Human Rights Watch said in statement that because of the
state's crackdown against the opposition the June 27 vote could not be free
and fair, echoing the views of a key group of southern African foreign
ministers who earlier on Thursday said political violence had jeopardised
the credibility of the run-off election.

"First the government went
after opposition members, now they're arresting the leaders," said Georgette
Gagnon, the New York-based Human Rights Watch's Africa director. "This is
another obvious attempt by Mugabe to hijack the election. Where will this
escalation of illegality stop?" she said.

Mugabe enters the run-off poll
as underdog after losing the March 29 first round vote to opposition MDC
party leader Morgan Tsvangirai and only managing to hold onto his job
because Tsvangirai failed to secure the margin required to takeover
power.

Political violence and gross human rights abuses have
characterised campaigning for the run-off poll, while police have arrested
several MDC leaders including Tsvangirai and party secretary general Tendai
Biti in what the opposition has said was an attempt by the government to
derail its drive to end Mugabe's decades-long rule.

Tsvangirai has
been arrested on no less than five occasions over the past two weeks but is
free after the police did not press charges.

Biti remains in police
custody facing charges of treason and the death penalty if
convicted.

"The treason accusations against Tendai Biti are yet another
clumsy attempt by the government to stop MDC leaders from campaigning," said
Gagnon.

Human Rights Watch urged observers from the Southern African
Development Community (SADC) and the African Union (AU) who have been
allowed into Zimbabwe to "actively monitor and publicly report" on
countrywide rights abuses ZANU PF to ensure full accountability for those
responsible.

Mugabe blocked observers from the United States and European
Union countries that he accuse of seeking to oust his government.

The
Human Rights Watch said the African observers should assess whether the
run-off poll was conducted in accordance to a SADC protocol on the holding
of free and fair elections.

But the foreign ministers of Tanzania,
Angola and Swaziland said they did not believe the run-off poll could be
free and fair given the levels of violence.

"There is every sign that
these elections will never be free nor fair," Tanzanian Foreign Minister
Bernard Membe told a news conference, in the region's strongest criticism
yet of Mugabe's handling of elections.

Tanzania is current Africa Union
chair and together with Swaziland and Angola forms SADC's peace and security
troika.

The MDC says political violence has killed at least 70 of its
members and displaced more than 25 000 others and who were in desperate need
of humanitarian assistance at a time the government banned aid agencies from
carrying out humanitarian work.

Mugabe - who rejects charges of
political violence against his government - three weeks ago suspended all
work by relief agencies he accused of using aid distribution to campaign for
Tsvangirai ahead of the run-off election - a charge aid groups deny. -
ZimOnline

State attempts to blame Biti for political
violence

Zim Online

by Wayne Mafaro Friday 20 June
2008

HARARE - Magistrate Mishrod Guvamombe will on Friday
decide whether to place opposition secretary general Tendai Biti on remand
as demanded by the state, which on Thursday tried to blame Biti for the
political violence engulfing Zimbabwe.

State counsel Florence Ziyambi
told Guvamombe that Biti was the author of a document titled "Transitional
Mechanisms" which outlines plans to seize power unconstitutionally and
should therefore be remanded in jail until he appears in court to answer to
charges of treason

Ziyambi claimed that the political violence that has
engulfed Zimbabwe and killed at least 70 members of Biti's opposition
Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) party could be directly linked to the
mysterious document although the state lawyer admitted she had not seen an
original copy of the document.

"The violence currently engulfing the
nation is linked to the document that the accused (Biti) authored and
signed. The anomalies which characterised the elections were also influenced
by the document," said Ziyambi.

However the defence urged Guvamombe to
free Biti, saying that the opposition leader had disowned the document that
the state was basing its case on soon after it was published by the
state-owned Herald newspaper.

In addition, no one including the state had
seen an original of the document in question and Biti was not linked to the
document in any way except that his name was typed on it, the defence
said.

Advocate Happious Zhou for the defence said: "The state does not
have an original of the document on which the state is basing its case and
the only association between accused (Biti) and the document is that his
name was typed on it.

"The document has no source and therefore
cannot be attributed to him. It would be a disaster for anybody to be placed
on remand on the basis of their name having been typed on the
document."

The defence team also formally raised with the magistrate
complaints about the way the police arrested Biti which the team said was
akin to abduction.

The MDC politician was arrested before he set foot on
the tarmac at Harare International airport as he arrived from South Africa.
He was handcuffed and bundled into a waiting Mercedes Benz and driven
away.

His lawyers said the way the arrest was executed was calculated to
deny Biti access to lawyers and "to make him feel all alone in the world and
to cause trauma, shock, and horror".

Biti was also deprived of sleep,
rest or food during the first 48 hours of his arrest during which he was
subjected to continuous interrogation, the lawyers said.

Guvamombe is
expected to make his ruling at around 1115 hrs today. - ZimOnline

Diplomats urge action, but no sanctions against
Zimbabwe

Monsters and Critics

By JT Nguyen Jun 19, 2008, 18:21 GMT

New York - US
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and other diplomats calledThursday for
international action to stop the political, social and economicdeterioration
in Zimbabwe as it prepares for run-off elections.

But they said sanctions
are not the proper measure to apply at the moment,when the focus should be
on improving humanitarian conditions for millionsof
Zimbabweans.

'Clearly we have reached the point where broader, stronger
internationalefforts are needed,' Rice told a round table meeting at UN
headquartersattended by dozens of government representatives, many of them
Africans.

The meeting was aimed
at helping the 15-nation council formulate a responseto the crisis in the
build-up to the June 27 vote in Zimbabwe. The councilplans to hold a formal
meeting next week to discuss the situation inZimbabwe.

Rice told
reporters following the meeting that diplomats heard concernsabout
intimidation and violence in Zimbabwe in the run-up to the election,and
about attacks on opponents to President Robert Mugabe.

'We heard concerns
that current conditions are such that free and fairelections cannot possibly
be held, we expressed utmost support for theAfrican Union and SADC to
alleviate the crisis there and support for themission of the UN special
envoy Haile Menkarios to bring about an end to thecrisis,' she
said.

Menkarios is currently visiting Zimbabwe to assess the situation
there andreport back to the UN in New York.

Rice and Bassole said the
round table wanted to send a 'strong message' ofinternational concern about
the situation in Zimbabwe. But they said the UNSecurity Council is the body
to decide action on solving the crisis in thatcountry.

'We are not
there yet on sanctions,' Bassole told reporters when askedwhether the group
discussed sanctions.

Rice said a call has been forwarded to 14 former
African presidents, NobelPeace Prize laureates and former UN Secretary
General Kofi Annan to impresson Zimbabwe to hold free and fair
elections.

She called on the Southern African Development Cooperation,
which groupssouthern African states under the leadership of President Thabo
Mbeki, tourge Mugabe to stop the violence in his country immediately and
allow theresumption of humanitarian assistance to the needy.

Mugabe
should allow the runoff elections to proceed freely and fairly andabide by
the results peacefully, Rice said.

Rice criticized Mugabe for squandering
his country's resources, once aneconomic jewel of southern Africa. She
charged that Mugabe has led 'Zimbabwenot only into a failed state that
threatens the lives of Zimbabweans, butalso the security and wellbeing of
all southern Africa.'

'We need to act now, if Zimbabwe could make the
transition to democracy, somuch would be possible for its people,' she said,
adding that theinternational community will have a role to play.

UN
Secretary General Ban Ki-moon Wednesday strongly criticized he
politicalatmosphere and said that repeated acts of intimidation and arrests
ofopposition leaders will make Zimbabwe's runoff presidential elections
lesscredible.

Ban said also that the post-election crisis is
compounded by thedeterioration of the political, social and economic
situation in thecountry, which is threatening 4 million vulnerable people
who needassistance for their daily survival.

He said Mugabe's
two-week-old suspension of relief activities by foreignnon-governmental
organizations (NGOs) has hurt 2 million people who had beenreceiving food
aid. They included 500,000 children who have not receivedhealth care,
HIV/AIDS and education support since the suspension earlier
inJune.

'The current violence, intimidation and the arrest of
opposition leaders arenot conducive to credible elections,' Ban said.
'Should these conditionscontinue to prevail, the legitimacy of the election
outcome would be inquestion.'

On the economic situation, Ban noted
Zimbabwe's rapid economic decline, withinflation shooting up 355,000 per
cent, provoking a collapse in socialservices and food insecurity since the
dispute over election results eruptedin April.

State
repression continues unabated in Zimbabwe

An MDC
activist was recently murdered in cold blood in Chipinge central'sward 8 on
Friday the 13th of June. Kenias Artwell Zekerwa, 36years old, wasabducted by
Zanu PF militia on Friday morning at his home and taken to aZanu PF base
about 9km from Chipinge town where he was severely torturedbefore he was
subsequently murdered. His body was later found dumped a fewmeters from the
base and had a lot of machete and knife wounds. It issuspected that
Councilor Sigauke (Zanu PF) who represents Chipinge's ward 8was the alleged
mastermind of this gruesome killing. Sigauke is believed tohave been working
with David Mwakinda, Cde Mujokora, a war veteran, and twoothers only
identified as Chikomba and Garwi. Zekerwa was buried in Chipingeon Tuesday
the 17th of June. Armed policemen were at the funeral where theyordered
Zekerwa's friends and relatives not to give graveside eulogies. Hewas
eventually buried in a silent manner that is not reminiscent of funeralsin
our culture.

Bulawayo

Gun-totting soldiers attacked and
severely assaulted 3 MDC women and 5youths who were putting up campaign
material for their party in Hillsideover the weekend. The eight were putting
up posters for Morgan Tsvangirai,the MDC presidential candidate in the
run-off election. The member-in chargeat Hillside police station who
happened to be in the vicinity of theincident is alleged to have fled the
scene, telling on-lookers that he didnot have the power to stop the soldiers
from continuing their violent act.He then went on to order police details at
Hillside police station not toinvestigate the matter.

In another
incident, a police constable based at Mzilikazi police station inBulawayo is
missing after he disappeared at Tredgold Courts where he was setto appear
before a magistrate facing charges of breaching the police code onMonday (16
June). The charges arose after Constable Paradzai Chinogwirei hadrefused to
vote by postal ballot at the police station where he is based.This incident
happened on Friday (13 June) after Chinogwirei had justarrived from his
rural home from burying two family members who had beenmurdered in cold
blood by Zanu PF militia in the on-going violentretribution. Chinogwirei was
incensed at being coerced to vote openlythrough the postal ballot system in
front of his superiors. Soon afterrefusing to vote, Chinogwirei was arrested
and taken to Rose camp where hewas severely tortured by war veterans and
youth militia. He was thendetained at Fairbridge police camp where a police
hearing was hastilyarranged on Saturday with Chinogwirei being charged with
breaching thepolice code. He was only brought to the Tredgold Magistrate's
court onMonday but disappeared soon after his arrival at court. His
whereaboutsremain unknown to this day.

Zanu PF has of late gone on a
violent rampage, intensifying violent attackstargeted at anyone perceived to
be aiding the cause of the MDC. RobertMugabe, the losing Zanu PF
presidential candidate in the March 29 electionhas vowed that he will not
allow the MDC to govern this country even if theywere to win the run-off
election saying they would rather go back to thebush to fight the
MDC.

The Youth Forum views such reckless talk as nothing more than
anintimidating tactic meant to coerce the electorate to vote for Zanu PF.
ZanuPF has dismally failed to govern the country, particularly the
economy,which is the reason why the people of Zimbabwe overwhelmingly voted
againstthem in the March 29 harmonized elections. It would be foolhardy for
Zanu PFto think that the violent retribution will make the electorate vote
forthem. The people of Zimbabwe spoke on March 29, much in the same way
thatthey will speak on June 27. The Youth Forum therefore urges all and
sundryto remain committed to the struggle for a truly democratic and
freeZimbabwe. The ballot is the silent trigger that will dismantle the Zanu
PFdictatorship. That they can promise war on the people of Zimbabwe smacks
ofa cornered and desperate regime that has clearly lost the mandate
anddirection to lead the people. The election will definitely not be free
andfair but the will of the people of Zimbabwe will prevail at the end of
itall.

Foreboding rises over Zimbabwe

BBC

Thursday, 19 June 2008 15:31 UK

By David Bamford BBC
Africa analyst

Thabo Mbeki's strategy has been neutrality and gentle
persuasion

Just over a week before the presidential run-off election in Zimbabwe, the
regional mediator, President Thabo Mbeki of South Africa, has held separate
talks with President Robert Mugabe and opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai.

There has been no word on the outcome of Mr Mbeki's meetings with the two
political opponents.

Earlier, the United Nations Secretary General, Ban Ki-moon, added his voice
to the growing international concern over the political violence in Zimbabwe.

African governments are looking to next week's run-off presidential election
in Zimbabwe with a growing sense of foreboding.

Few critics

Violence remains high, intimidation is rampant, and there is an assumption
that if and when this election takes place, the troubles could only just be
starting.

A few - but only a few - African leaders have spoken out publicly against
President Mugabe and his political allies.

What you need in Zimbabwe is an international peacekeeping force so
that eventually proper elections can be held

Kenyan Prime Minister Raila Odinga

The leader of South Africa's governing African National Congress (ANC) party,
Jacob Zuma, said he did not expect the election to be free and fair.

Kenyan Prime Minister Raila Odinga, who has been in Washington, has gone the
furthest so far.

"My view is that the time has come for the international community to act on
Zimbabwe in the way that it did in Bosnia," he said.

"I do not think that we are going to get free and fair elections in Zimbabwe.

"And, what you need in Zimbabwe is an international peacekeeping force so
that eventually proper elections can be held."

'Strong message'

There has been no shortage of Western voices, not only criticising the
violence, but saying who they believe is behind it.

Mr Mbeki has remained loyal to his original strategy of neutrality and gentle
persuasion.

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is among those hoping that - however
it looks on the outside - he is being far more forthright in his consultations
with Mr Mugabe.

Western leaders have condemned the electoral violence in
Zimbabwe

"I think that it is time for the leaders of Africa to say to President Mugabe
that the people of Zimbabwe deserve a free and fair election, that you cannot
intimidate opponents, you cannot put opponents in jail, you cannot threaten them
with charges of treason, and be respected in the international community," she
said.

"And I think that is a strong message, and I hope it will be delivered."

Behind the scenes, many are already dismissing the election as irrelevant.

Some are talking of a possible Kenya-style solution, with a form of unity
government.

But there are forces in Zimbabwe - on both sides of the political divide -
who would oppose this tooth and nail.

If no deal can be reached, then the country and the region seem destined for
an even greater humanitarian disaster.

Zimbabwe: Who is
watching?

Trócaire

Date: 19 Jun 2008

Frightening reports are coming from Zimbabwe as the date for
the country's run-off presidential election betwen President Robert Mugabe
and Morgan Tsvangirai draws near.

The headlines alone are enough to
send a chill down your spine; 'Mobs target opposition families', 'Do or die
campaign', 'Zimbabwe is under siege', 'War of terror', 'They looted my body
like I was dead', 'Militia reach town', 'No hope in Zimbabwe'. This while a
special UN envoy is visiting Zimbabwe to assess pre-election conditions and
while hundreds of Southern African Development Community (SADC) observers
and observers from other African countries are being deployed across the
country.

Their presence is not enough to deter those responsible for
tilting the electoral playing field and meting out brutal violence ahead of
the June 27 run off. Scores of people have been killed and the numbers
feared displaced now number in the tens of thousands.

Few Electoral
Observers

The Government has only accredited 500 local observers this
time around and very late in the day. By contrast, thousands were accredited
for the March polls where, by their very presence, they deterred violence
and boosted the morale of a despondent and fearful electorate. They were
present inside each of the country's 9,000 polling stations - an impossible
feat for foreign observers who only number in the hundreds.

The
presence of a greater number of foreign observers this time round (500
compared to 120 in March) is welcome but the fact remains that they are
visitors and will only see things with the limited vision of a visitor's
eyes. Will they see, and accurately document, the fact that thousands will
stay away from the polls due to displacement or because of the ongoing
intimidation and violence or because their identity cards have been burned
along with their homes and all their belongings?

Will they follow the
TV and document the total absence of opposition campaign messages, the new
and official policy of the Zimbabwean State Television?

Will they
feel the hunger for justice that was so palpable in the first round of
elections? Will they hear the stomachs of more than 4 million people that
continue to ache and that are being denied food and essential medicines?
Since June 4 most NGO's have been banned from operating and those who
haven't are too afraid to do so.

The death of Abigail Chiroto

One
only needs to look at the way that people are being beaten and killed to
understand the levels of fear that have been sweeping across Zimbabwe. Only
yesterday (Wednesday June 18) the body of Abigail Chiroto, wife of a leading
MDC councillor for Harare City Council, Emmanuel Chiroto was found on a farm
on the outskirts of Harare. Armed militia abducted her from her home on
Monday evening along with her four-year-old son after setting the house
alight with petrol bombs.

The little boy was dropped off at a local
police station but his mother was brutally slain and her body dumped in a
wood. Mr. Chiroto was elected a city councillor on March 29th but since the
elections Local Government Minister Ignatius Chombo has blocked the
councillors from formally taking office and from entering Harare's City
Hall. On Sunday night, in a symbolic gesture of defiance, MDC councillors
nominally appointed Mr Chiroto the new Mayor of Harare.

We all have a
responsibility to act as observers in this election period and to bear
witness to what is happening. The time has come to declare enough is enough
and for those with power, locally, nationally and internationally, to take
firm action to stop this flagrant and brutal display of man's inhumanity to
man.

Atrocities mount in Zimbabwe

The TimesJune 20, 2008

The world should
warn Mugabe that it is collecting evidence of his crimes and considering
interventionThe news from Zimbabwe grows more sickening by the day. The
campaign of terror by President Mugabe's thugs to intimidate his opponents
has led to the beating, torture and murder of whole families (see opposite
page).

Yesterday four more MDC youth activists were found dead near
Harare, abducted on Tuesday, killed and then dumped. Neither office nor
popularity afford protection: the wife of the mayor-elect of Harare was
seized and found dead later in a hospital. Others have been mutilated, set
on fire with petrol or burnt alive in their homes. Reports from across the
country tell of police, soldiers and militia gangs of so-called "veterans"
being mobilised to silence MDC supporters, force villagers to attend
pro-Mugabe rallies and imprison opposition activists in makeshift torture
centres set up in country clubs.

The level of violence is fast
approaching that of lawless warlordism, the kind of random terror used by
rebels in Sierra Leone or sadistic death squads in Rwanda. Zimbabwe has done
its best to hide these crimes from the world, banning journalists and
election observers or, with cynical hypocrisy, blaming opposition activists
for causing bloodshed and attempting to destabilise the country. Even to the
country's neighbours, most of whom have deliberately turned a blind eye to
the horrors of Mr Mugabe's paranoia, his brutalities are ever more evident.
Several admit now that a fair election is impossible. Botswana sent a
protest to Harare last week, and regional observers can see for themselves
the "cleansing" of opponents now under way.

President Mbeki of South
Africa, whose official role as a mediator is made meaningless by his
partisan support of Mr Mugabe, flew north on Wednesday to urge both sides to
cancel the election and form a government of national unity. His proposal
was as feeble as his efforts to end the violence: not only would this
entrench a tyrant and his cronies in illegal office, but it would also give
a free hand to the shadowy military figures surrounding him who are
determined to silence all those ready to speak out about the campaign of
organised terror.

It is time the world let Mr Mugabe know that it is
collecting evidence of what is happening for use in war crimes trials. The
junta ordering the atrocities should know that at some time in the very near
future it will be held to account. The world was unwilling to intervene
while the killings were going on in Rwanda, Liberia or Sierra Leone, but it
surely will not be so tardy in its response again. Mr Mugabe's henchmen are
as guilty of crimes against humanity as those who carried out the ethnic
cleansing in Bosnia and Kosovo and are still doing so in Darfur. The Army
and police in Zimbabwe, many of whom are revolted by the orders they are
given, are reluctant to disobey. But if they know that international
retribution awaits those responsible for torture and murder, they may be
emboldened to refuse this attempt to terrorise their countrymen.

News
of the mounting atrocities is leaking out to the wider world, despite the
restrictions on reporting. The evidence of ethnic cleansing and murder is
compelling: starvation is now being used as a weapon, with food withheld
from swaths of the country seen as disloyal or likely to vote for the
opposition. This alone should be enough to prompt the United Nations to ask
whether Mr Mugabe is not now committing crimes against humanity as plainly
as other dictators against whom the world has taken action eventually. No
country has fallen as swiftly or as far from tolerable prosperity to brutal
inhumanity. If Zimbabwe's neighbours are too pusillanimous to act, the world
must consider doing so before this disgraceful election causes the killing
and torture of more innocent people.

CommentWhat a pity the
logistics mean that no one that would intervene can, while those that could
won't.

Sure Mugabe should be tried and probably hanged but it will not
happen

The Devil Has Come

Of the inner circle many have historically
referenced biblical names; Augustine, Constantine, Joseph and Gabriel. And
like so many men through the ages they have lost their way. Today they
stand on the precipice, raging against their fortunes and time. Their feet
claw at the edge of the cliff as they try mightily to avoid the
abyss.

They sit huddled together in quiet communion, each day
marked by another compromise of their humanity. They are lost souls sitting
like satyrs at the feet of Beelzebub, each of them no longer thinking of
what they could have done, but reacting like animals cornered. There is
pure savagery in those reactions for their remaining time is so very
short.

Constantine Chiwengwa and his wife Jocelyn are a perfect
pair. He waddles about in costumes so entirely inane they would remind one
of a caricature. Bedecked in unearned but bestowed medals and ribbonry, he's
a perfect buffoon of a man with such pretense its hard not to laugh. His
main sins are ambition and greed, but these are not the least of his
weaknesses. Exceedingly poor taste in women would be his most egregious
error. His wife Jocelyn, an illiterate peasant girl, is a former
prostitute. The girlish looks of yesteryear have long faded, replaced by a
vapid desire and a shreaking voice. She is the perfect model of the aging
first wife that the tired old man cannot believe he is left with-an aging
model decades past any appeal. She is famous for saying that its been
thirty years since she tasted white blood. But he commands an army he is
afraid to send into the field, uncertain of their loyalties and terrified of
their guns being turned against the tired regime.

Joseph
Chinotimba is a psychopathic peasant who calls himself the leader of the
'war veterans'. Chinotimba (aka Chinos) never stood battle in the
independence wars or even took part in them, and the young 18 and 19 year
old 'war veterans' he purportedly leads were not even born at the time of
independence or the war. Wreaking of stale whiskey and dressed in rags, he
is a man of reactionary violence who feels this short step up the ladder
from his inconsequential beginnings & failed domestic positions, is a
badge he must invoke at all times. But ravaged by AIDS, illiterate and too
angry to be of any use to reasonable men, he has been chosen by the depraved
to lead the slaughter of the citizenry and to lead the illiterate aimless
street children against the rural people, their wives and children. A
coward who once cowed at being slapped by a bus driver, his is the rage of
an inconsequential bullyboy; a man who strikes out at everything because his
whole life is one of succeeding at nothing. But the support of true war
veterans was lost long ago, and the depth of loyalty among the dispatched
street thugs is shallow as an african river in
September.

Perence Shiri, commander of the Zimbabwean Air Force,
is Robert Gabriel's first cousin.

He has referred to himself as 'The
Black Jesus'. It was he who commanded the infamous

Fifth Brigade
from 1983 to l984, which slaughtered some 26,000 Ndebele during one of the
saddest periods of Zimbabwean history. In the late l990s and early 21st
century years, it was he who organized the farm invasions by war veterans
that destroyed the economy and the agrarian sector.

Augustine
Chihruri is head of the national police and complicit in every move the
securocrats make. His tenure has been marked by total fealty to Robert
Gabriel and a blind eye towards the rule of law or enforcement of even the
most basic needs of the citizenry. Men, women and children are butchered
and his response is to say he is under orders not to respond. The Zanu-PF
"militias" that operate with impunity in the country side do so because
Chihruri will not stand against them. Many of his ill-paid and un-trained
police share sympathies with the opposition because they are friends and
family to the beaten and brutalized.

These are the most violent
and desperate of Mugabe's rapidly deteriorating circle, but they are but
cogs in the Hades' wheel that is Robert Gabriel Mugabe. Educated by
Catholic Jesuits and having attended university, Robert Gabriel did no
actual fighting in the time of the war for independence. He was a
backbencher and avowed Marxist., monitoring the accounting and finances of
the rebels. The real war was fought by men such as Zapu's Joshua Nkomo, the
man he cleverly lured into a "unity" government and then
eliminated.

Much has been made of Mugabe's early years in
leadership and the healthy (for Africa) beneficial things accomplished. His
principle achievement was the development of an education system now in
tatters. But Robert Gabriel lost his soul long ago and fell under the spell
of his own visage. Zimbabweans tell of a long ago premonition that tells of
his downfall and violent end. Mugabe, a superstitious man, was terrified
of this story which came again across the countryside just before the March
elections. Unable to sleep for days, he sent his wife and family
abroad.

Robert Gabriel was hopelessly lost in the international
arena. He survived for a long time on the favor of Fidel's Cuba, communist
Russia and North Korea, but he has no understanding of markets,
international agreements or how the rest of the world operates. And all of
those communist supporters eventually vanished. He parades around in 4,000
usd custom suits and enjoys driving in motorcades in his armoured 700,000
usd vehicle with full military adoption, but he is an isolated and bereft
soul without friends. At 84 his eye sight is failing and he has prostate
cancer, a condition no longer treatable in his own country because the
medical sector is without even the most basic applications, let alone the
professionals who could treat him, all of whom have all left the
country.

From the center of the web he has spun, he screams
decades old sophistry about the British and the whites. Never mind that
only 28,000 whites remain in a population of eleven million (three million
of all hues have fled the country). The demons he sees from yesteryear are
not real, but the ones he has created in his own mind are very much looming
on the horizon, perhaps more so in the dark and vacuous rooms of his
personal mansion. He is a lonely and angry man. His second wife, Grace, is
forty years his junior and while now in her mid-forties, her dalliances with
multiple lovers and consorts are well known and certainly an embarrassment
in his dotage.

Having destroyed the economy, the electric &
water services, banking institutions, the justice sector, the health sector,
the roads, and the agrarian sector, there is nothing left to tear down.
With inflation at a guess-timated 1.6 million per cent per year, exports at
zero, factories at less than eight per cent of capacity, and unemployment at
85 per cent... the collapse is so complete there is no return from
Armeggedon without the aid of foreign entities. And that is not going to
happen while he remains the head of government, even if it is likely a
titular position at this juncture. His country faced with starvation, he
has banned all relief agencies from supplying even basic food stocks,
terming them agents of the west and his political
opponents.

This senile shell of a mad man has presided over the
largest and most complete destruction of a single country in the last
millenium. Other countries in history have been over-run or conquered by
war, but this total destruction from within is without precedent. Like
Ceausescu at the end, Mugabe's ending will be swift and without regret.
Most of all, it is the death and persecution of its citizenry that Zimbabwe
will never understand or forget.

God and country is the
rallying cry from ages past. Robert Gabriel Mugabe has turned his back on
both.

African Leaders Start To Speak Out On Zimbabwe Pre-Election
Violence

African leaders are voicing
strong doubts about the fairness of the presidential run-off election coming
up in Zimbabwe next week in a climate of increasingly deadly political
violence.

Speaking for the Southern African Development Community,
Tanzanian Foreign Minister Bernard Membe said Thursday that "there is every
sign" the second-round ballot will be neither free nor fair.

In
South Africa, African National Congress President Jacob Zuma told a public
forum on Wednesday that he does not think the election will be
fair.

Citing "the manner in which violence has increased, how there is
interference and detention of the opposition leaders" and statements by
President Robert Mugabe and other ruling ZANU-PF officials that they will
not accept defeat, "there won't be a free and fair election."

Membe
said Tanzania has asked Harare to stop politically-related violence which
the opposition and other observers say has killed scores of people and
injured hundreds more. Membe was speaking to reporters on behalf of SADC's
peace and security committee.Until recently, most African leaders have
avoided publicly criticizing Mr. Mugabe or the Harare government. But rising
international protests against the violence that human rights groups say has
been engineered by the Mugabe government seems to have had an effect even on
African leaders who for the most have tended to close ranks on human rights
issues.

One of the most outspoken so far is Rwandan President Paul
Kagame, who leveled tough criticism at president Robert Mugabe for saying he
won't step down if he is defeated.

SADC deployed 221 monitors in
various parts of the country and 80 more arrived Thursday.

The head of the Pan-African Parliament's election observer
mission, Marwick Khumalo, said that with the violence and electoral
irregularities, a credible election cannot be held.

Meanwhile, United
States Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Thursday called for "broader
and stronger" international action. Rice was speaking at a U.N. headquarters
meeting called in part to identify measures to deal with the crisis ahead of
the election.

Lusaka, Zambia - The media and freedom of
expression environment in Zimba bwe is severely constrained, African media
organisations from a fact-finding mission to Zimbabwe charged in a statement
issued at the conclusion of their mission.

The media organisations
that went on a fact-finding mission to Zimbabwe from 8-1 3 June, included
the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ-Africa office) , the Media
Institute of Southern Africa (MISA), members of the Network of Africa n
Freedom of Expression Organisations (NAFEO), the Southern Africa Editors'
Forum (SAEF), and the Southern Africa Journalists Association
(SAJA).

They also noted that no proper and professional media work could
take place in Zimbabwe under the circumstances, to allow for free and fair
elections.

"The mission takes note and congratulates brave Zimbabwean
journalists and indep endent newspapers who still express interest to
continue with their work despite all these daunting challenges," states a
joint statement issued by African media organisations.

In the light
of the media and freedom of expression environment in Zimbabwe, the mission
recommended that the regional and international community should monitor the
situation of journalists and independent media and ensure compliance with
regional and international standards.

They also called for regional and
international organisations to prepare to assist Zimbabwean journalists and
media outlets who might be forced into either leaving the country or seeking
medical or legal assistance.

The media organisations said pressure must
be maintained on the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) by the
regional and international community to resolve the deepening political and
economic crisis in Zimbabwe that affects the ability of the media to perform
their duties in adequately informing the Zimbabwean people.

"The SADC
and AU observer missions must prevail on the government of Zimbabwe to allow
greater observance and monitoring of the election process by the
international community and ensure the security and freedoms of journalists
and the media in Zimbabwe," part of the recommendations read.

The mission
noted that the accreditation of foreign journalists and media organisations
was at the discretion of the Media and Information Commission (MIC) and in
this election the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC), adding that
consequently, a number of local and foreign journalists had been denied
accreditation to cover the elections.

The mission met a number of
Zimbabwean journalists, editors and media owners working in urban and rural
areas and a cross section of representatives of local civic organisations
working countrywide.

The mission expressed shock at the level of fear
pervading the Zimbabwe media and society at large.

MDC MP arrested in Zimbabwe

SABC

June 19, 2008,
13:15

Zimbabwe police have arrested a newly elected opposition MP, and
are hunting six others. The state-run Herald newspaper says the Movement for
Democratic Change's (MDC) Shuwa Mudiwa, stands accused of kidnapping a
13-year-old girl. Six others are wanted for alleged murder, public violence
and vandalism.

MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai has been detained five
times already. His Secretary-General, Tendai Biti, is facing a treason
charge which he will try to quash in court today.

Meanwhile the death
toll and food shortages are escalating. Four people were kidnapped and found
dead yesterday outside Chitungwiza. The locals say Zanu-PF militia were
behind it. United Nations (UN) food agencies expect 5 million people to go
hungry by early next year, as maize production plummets.

President
Thabo Mbeki was in Zimbabwe yesterday. He reportedly met both sides, but no
details are available. The UN's will discuss the situation today, in both an
open and closed session.

"Getting People Participating Is a Process, Not an Event"

IPSnews

By
Ephraim Nsingo

HARARE, Jun 19 (IPS) - Amidst the turmoil surrounding the
Jun. 27presidential run-off in Zimbabwe, it is doubtless something of a
challengeto muster enthusiasm for plans relating to the country's next
generalelections. Gender activists intent on having more women voted into
office in2013 are undaunted, however.

"We now need to take a
systematic approach and start preparing for the nextelections. We are
confident from our experience in this election that morewomen will come up,"
said Luta Shaba, executive director of the Women'sTrust, in reference to the
ballot held Mar. 29. The trust is anon-governmental organisation (NGO) based
in Zimbabwe's capital, Harare.

"A number have already written to us
seeking assistance and guidance on howthey can be involved as observers and
polling agents in the run-offelection. The big challenge now is to keep the
momentum and maintain theirconfidence," she told IPS.

The efforts of
the trust form part of 'Women Can Still Do It!', acontinuation of the 'Women
Can Do It!' campaign that was launched last yearto encourage more women to
participate in the recent elections ascandidates, voters, polling agents and
observers -- overcoming the view thatpolitics is essentially a male
domain.

"We have already started working with women at grassroots levels
and runningadverts on radio, television and (in) newspapers. Our campaign
has somehowslowed down because of what is happening now...After this (the
run-off) wewill intensify our operations at all levels, especially at the
grassroots,empowering women to empower others," said Shaba.

According
to the former director of the Women in Politics Support Unit(WiPSU), Rutendo
Hadebe, "This election has given us an opportunity torevisit our strategies
to see what worked and what did not work, and usethose (that worked) as a
foundation for future efforts." WiPSU is an NGOheadquartered in
Harare.

Noted Netsai Mushonga, co-ordinator of the Women's Coalition of
Zimbabwe,"We will keep pushing; this is an ongoing process which we believe
will payoff some day. Our democracy is still very young, and I believe with
time wewill attain our targets in terms of equitable gender representation
ingovernment."

The Harare-based coalition is an umbrella group for
women's organisations inZimbabwe.

Elections across the
board

This year's elections saw votes cast for the presidency, the upper
and lowerhouses of parliament (the Senate and House of Assembly), and local
councils.

No women contested the presidency.

Figures provided by
WiPSU show that female candidates won 21* of the 60Senate seats in play (35
percent). An additional 33 seats are reserved for agroup that comprises the
president and deputy president of the Council ofChiefs, 16 other traditional
chiefs (elected separately), 10 provincialgovernors and five senators
representing special interests. Women do notfigure among the new contingent
of chiefs in the upper house; provincialgovernors and senators for special
interests are appointed by the president.

During the last Senate
elections, in November 2005, women won 21 of the 50seats that could be
contested (42 percent), and were appointed to two of the16 seats up for
nomination, giving them control of just under 35 percent ofthe upper
house.

The House of Assembly comprises 210 seats, 207 of which were
contested Mar.29, when 34 women won their races. By-elections for the three
remainingseats -- Gwanda South, Pelandaba-Mpopoma and Redcliff -- will take
placelater this month alongside the presidential run-off. With one
femalecandidate competing in the Gwanda South constituency, women may
marginallyincrease the proportion of seats in the lower house that they
currentlyoccupy: about 16 percent.

The outcome as regards the House
of Assembly was reminiscent of the March2005 polls for the office, in which
women won 20 seats and were appointed toa further four; this amounted to 16
percent of positions in the lower house,which then comprised 120 elected
members and 30 nominees.

Under a constitutional amendment, the Senate and
House of Assembly wereenlarged in 2007.

Of the 1,902 local government
seats, about 16.6 percent were captured bywomen Mar. 29 (315 women won local
office). At the time of publication IPSwas unable to obtain gender-related
statistics for the previous localelections; prior to the Mar. 29 vote, polls
for urban and rural councilswere held separately -- the last urban local
election in 2002, and ruralpolls in 2006.

Overall, figures which are
available show that Zimbabwe's governinginstitutions have some way to go in
meeting local aspirations for theadministration to reflect the fact that
women make up about half thepopulation in the country -- and also in
fulfilling regional goals. In 1997,the Southern African Development
Community, to which Zimbabwe belongs, set atarget of having 30 percent of
decision-making posts in member nationsoccupied by women, by 2005. This
target has since been adjusted to 50percent of posts.

"There is a
temptation to have a pessimistic response to the results,considering that
there has not been a positive change in the representationpercentages," said
Shaba.

"But from an advocacy perspective, we are on the right track...If
youcompare the number of women who contested and their performance, we
havemade great strides," she added.

"Getting people participating is
a process, not an event."

Of the 198 candidates who ran for the Senate
this year, 64 were women (32.3percent); in 2005, there were 25 women among
the 90 Senate aspirants (justbelow 28 percent of the total).

In the
case of the lower house, 118 of the 775 candidates who vied for seatsMar. 29
were women (15.2 percent) -- compared to 58 of the 272 candidates(21.3
percent) on the ballot in 2005.

Concerning local government polls, 661 of
the 3,831 aspirants who ran thisyear were women (just over 17
percent).

Climate of fear

There is widespread concern about the
presidential run-off, which pits longtime head of state Robert Mugabe
against Morgan Tsvangirai, head of thelarger faction of the Movement for
Democratic Change (MDC).

Zimbabwean law requires a second round of
polling in the event that nocandidate wins more than half the vote in the
first round of elections forthe presidency. The MDC claimed that Tsvangirai
narrowly won the Mar. 29presidential ballot; however, official results
indicate that he captured47.9 percent of the vote, against 43.2 percent for
Mugabe. Delays in issuingthese results prompted fears of vote rigging on the
part of government.

Extensive physical abuse and other harassment of
opposition supporters haveled observers and rights activists to declare that
a fair election inZimbabwe is all but impossible under present
circumstances. The main factionof the MDC claims that 70 of its supporters,
or their relatives, have beenkilled and thousands more injured in violence
aimed at keeping Mugabe inpower.

A Jun. 9 report by the New
York-based Human Rights Watch, '"Bullets for Eachof You": State-Sponsored
Violence since Zimbabwe's March 29 Elections',notes that "The violence has
been particularly concentrated in former ruralstrongholds of the Zimbabwe
African National Union-Patriotic Front(ZANU-PF) -- areas that to the party's
shock voted for the MDC in theparliamentary and first-round presidential
elections."

"ZANU-PF officials and 'war veterans' are beating, torturing
and mutilatingsuspected MDC activists and supporters in hundreds of base
camps, many ofthem army bases, established across the provinces as local
operationscenters," the report states.

Amidst other allegations, it
also accuses the party and its supporters ofbeing "...engaged in a campaign
of looting and destruction, slaughteringanimals, stealing food and property,
and burning down homesteads."

The run-up to the Mar. 29 polls was marred
by similar irregularities,echoing the pattern of earlier presidential and
parliamentary elections. AsIPS reported, opposition supporters and rights
activists were harassed andabused, and questions raised about the voters'
roll -- while statebroadcasting services were biased in favour of ZANU-PF
and food aidallegedly manipulated, amongst other problems (see
POLITICS-ZIMBABWE: "TheElection Will Not Be Free and Fair").

Earlier
this month, Zimbabwe's government accused aid groups of
politicalinterference and ordered them to suspend their activities; while a
number ofgroups have since been allowed to resume work, the suspension has
promptedrenewed fears about the use of food aid as a political
weapon.

According to figures on the website of the World Food Programme,
45 percentof the country's population is malnourished. Years of political
and economicdifficulties have also left the nation with shortages of other
basic goods,runaway inflation, joblessness and widespread
poverty.

The Mar. 29 polls saw ZANU-PF lose control of the House of
Assembly for thefirst time in Zimbabwe's post-independence history: the
former ruling partywon 97 seats in the house and MDC-Tsvangirai 99 seats,
while a smaller MDCfaction headed by Arthur Mutambara took 10 -- and an
independent candidateone seat. MDC-Tsvangirai, MDC-Mutambara and the
independent have sinceagreed to form a coalition that can exercise a
majority in the House ofAssembly.

The MDC split in 2005 over
participation in that year's Senate polls.

As regards the Senate, ZANU-PF
won 30 of the contested Senate seats Mar. 29,MDC-Tsvangirai 24 seats, and
MDC-Mutambara six seats.

A breakdown of party representation in
parliament along gender lines showsthat ZANU-PF has the largest number of
female legislators.

Of the 21 women in Zimbabwe's Senate, 13 represent
ZANU-PF, and eightMDC-Tsvangirai.

Concerning the House of Assembly,
21 of the women in the house belong toZANU-PF, 12 to MDC-Tsvangirai, and one
to MDC-Mutambara.

* Please note that certain statistics about women's
participation inZimbabwean elections that are used in this article may
differ from figuresused in previous features on the same topic. The
statistics used in theearlier articles were the best available figures at
the time of publication.(END/2008)

Comments fom Correspondents

Poor Zimbabwe. When are you going to get rid
of this madman President ofyours? The country is a disgrace and just a
violence ridden dust bowl. Undermugabe he has reduced your country to a
thug's paradise. He and his thugsterrorise the great people of Zimbabwe so
why don't you all rise up againstthis dictator? I laugh when I hear talk of
elections there. Thugs likemugabe don't know how to honour democratic
elections. Thugs like him shouldjust be in prison cells not determining the
lives of a population. Thisguy's just a joke. He must be mad in the head. I
feel so sorry for yourcountry and for the rest of Africa because it doesn't
have the guts to ousthim.The silly little man is a joke. Lock him up and
move on.John Davey,Southern England.----------In response to
"The Letter"

Yes as impressive as the letter is and the list that
goes with it, alongwith all the apparent political and diplomatic pressure
being applied, I canall but not help resign myself to the thought that the
forthcoming electionsin Zimbabwe will both be extremely painful for the
majority if not all ofits Citizens and a total farce, not that that is not
already the reality ofthe situation on the ground at this very
moment.

Frankly speaking the prospects of anything being free and
fair in theforeseeable future appears at this time to be very bleak with
many aZimbabwean's hope, faith, spirit, heart, limb, skull and body broken
orcrushed. A Nation brought to its knees economically and living in fear
ofwhat the tomorrow will bring. Yet aside from the active courage of
arelative few, the World as a whole, its Institutions invested with the
careand protection of Human Rights, those, Political persons with the power
todo something would seem to be standing back and waiting to see what
willhappen ... How bad does the crisis have to become before someone or
acollective group somewhere somehow says enough is enough?

It
certainly is not going to happen from within given the simple fact thatthose
that have stood up, have been neutralized or beaten into all-but
totalsubmission and presently live in fear of their lives and what the
futureholds.

A traumatic, critical and extremely sad state of affairs
that cries out forimmediate intervention in some shape or form of substance
and has been doingso for many a month now, if not years.

That
a man can allegedly openly state that "the pen can never win againstthe gun"
surely is a case, and I say it again, to say enough is enough!

Or is
there a hidden agenda, even possibly a conspiracy to allow situationssuch as
we have in Zimbabwe to go unattended, I wonder?

Calls, appeals,
letters, legal cases, sanctions, bans and many other formsof pressure abound
and somehow few have seemed to work out that it allamounts to naught when a
good number living in fear of loosing their powerand effectively insane or
at the least out of touch with reality, by accountof their actions are being
left to literally terrorize a Nation to a pointof what presently has the
potential to be a complete disaster. And then?

Obviously natural
disasters we have little or zero control over but man-madethere has to come
a moment and time of action for all those that have thepower to do something
and accountability for those that have abused it.

In conclusion
the question needs to be asked in the cold light of the day,as a matter of
urgency "Has the situation not become unmanageable and is itnot time for
intervention in Zimbabwe".

This is a rule of, for life whether it be a
Father protecting a Child,family members and or friends attempting to help a
fellow addict and yesWorld Leaders confronting and acting against fellow
Leaders gone array.

It is all about "tough love" and in the case of
Zimbabwe the consequencesloom great, if that is not already the case should
NOTHING be done in thefew remaining days before the elections next week
Friday.

The warning signs are there for all to see, as clear as a fast
approaching"tornado" on a set of frame by frame satellite
pictures.

Heed and action needs to be taken sooner rather than later and
furthermore Ibelieve I speak for a great many of my fellow
countrymen.

A deeply concerned Zimbabwean,

trusting that
this letter might just reach someone who really cares and hasthe power to
act.

Rights group urges S. Africa to stop deportations

Yahoo News

By CELEAN
JACOBSON, Associated Press Writer 2 hours, 37 minutes ago

JOHANNESBURG,
South Africa - A human rights group called on South Africa tostop mass
deportations of Zimbabweans, accusing the country of failing tohelp end a
political crisis next door that has led thousands to flee.

New
York-based Human Rights Watch said in a report Thursday that Zimbabweansin
South Africa are not "voluntary economic migrants," blaming
ZimbabweanPresident Robert Mugabe and his government for the country's
economicdecline.

"Without fail, Zimbabweans in South Africa spoke of
the utter desperationthey felt back home. Most said they had no option but
to turn to their SouthAfrican neighbors for help to survive," said Gerry
Simpson, who wrote thereport.

However, because of South Africa's
"dysfunctional asylum system andarbitrary and haphazard deportation
practices," thousands of Zimbabweans arebeing unlawfully returned to
Zimbabwe, where they may face persecution, hesaid.

The organization
estimates that about 1.5 million Zimbabweans are in SouthAfrica, although
other estimates put the number at 3 million.

South Africa does not
recognize them as refugees but as economic migrants.The country's Home
Affairs department is considered corrupt and hasstruggled to come up with a
coherent immigration policy. Hundreds of peoplefrom across Africa wait
desperately in line for papers at offices across thecountry.

About
20,000 Zimbabweans apply for asylum every year, but according tolatest
available figures, only 241 Zimbabweans were granted refugee statusbetween
2004 and 2006, the report said.

Human Rights Watch called on the South
African government to giveZimbabweans special immigrant status. Simpson said
"regularizing" the statusof Zimbabweans would unburden South Africa's
overloaded asylum system andprotect them from exploitation and violence in
South Africa.

Zimbabweans were targeted in recent xenophobic attacks by
South Africans whoclaim foreigners are stealing jobs and using scarce
resources.

However, Cleo Mosana, spokeswoman for the Home Affairs
ministry, said SouthAfrica would not have a special category for citizens of
a particularcountry. "We wouldn't create a system based on national crisis,"
she said.

Zimbabwe, once the region's breadbasket, has the world's
highest inflationrate and the country suffers chronic shortages of medicine,
food, fuel,water and electricity.

The report says that the high
number of Zimbabweans in South Africaunderlines a "failure of foreign
policy" in Pretoria. It says South Africanauthorities have turned a blind
eye to their presence.

"Until South African changes its stance toward the
ruling party" inZimbabwe, a change in its immigration policy is unlikely,
Simpson said.

The report says deportation does not act as a deterrent.
About 200,000Zimbabweans were deported in 2007 and most returned within days
or weeks.

"Most Zimbabweans just want to be able to help themselves and
their familieswithout fear of deportation," Simpson said.

Kenyan football fans chant 'Mugabe must
go'

From SW Radio Africa, 18 June

By Lance Guma

Over 36 000 Kenyan football fans chanted
'Mugabe must go' as the Zimbabweannational soccer team walked onto the pitch
for a World Cup qualifying matchlast Saturday. The warriors were beaten 2-0
by Kenya at the Nyayo NationalSports Stadium in the capital city Nairobi.
Just before that match the homefans made their feelings known about Mugabe's
continued stay in power, withone local blogger saying, 'the chant of -Mugabe
must go - echoed around thestadium from some 36 000 Kenyan fans.' One fan
whose nationality could notbe ascertained was pictured holding up a banner
with the same message.Themba Dube a Zimbabwean working in Tanzania said
Zimbabwe's crisis isdominating media space in the region and a lot of
Kenyans are verysympathetic towards their plight. He said this was because
they went throughsimilar waves of political violence. Dube said after the
match, some of theKenyan supporters blamed Zimbabwe's defeat on the
country's politicalcrisis, and expressed hopes that things will change after
the June 27thpresidential run-off. The view of the fans also echoed that of
their PrimeMinister Raila Odinga who has taken a much tougher stance on
Mugabe than hisAfrican peers.

Odinga has urged Mugabe to step
down and that other governments should echothe demand for peacekeeping
troops to organise a free and fair election.Odinga who himself is part of a
unity government that helped end politicalviolence in Kenya said South
African President Thabo Mbeki should speak morestrongly, 'against impunity
in Zimbabwe.' Odinga told an internationaldiscussion forum Tuesday that,
'Zimbabwe is an eyesore on the Africancontinent. I'm sad that so many heads
of state in Africa have remained quietwhen disaster is looming in Zimbabwe.'
Former United Nations SecretaryGeneral Kofi Annan has also joined the chorus
of condemnation and accusedMugabe of, 'tarnishing the reputation of Africa
as a whole.' Last week 40prominent African leaders, mostly former heads of
state, musicians and othercelebrities signed an open letter calling on the
Mugabe regime to endpolitical violence and conduct a peaceful election.
South Africa's rulingANC party leader Jacob Zuma this week said he did not
expect a free and fairelection in Zimbabwe.